The Perfect Score
All that can be said about X-games this year is history has been made. Shaun White laid down probably the greatest pipe run of his life to date and solidified himself with a score of 100, something no one has ever been able to do at the X games level in the dude tube. The precedent has been set.
Leaving out that it was Shaun White that achieved this feat one has to question if a perfect score means the death of half pipe riding as we know it or if a 100 should ever be given out in a contest? With no where left to go in terms of scoring what’s the point then?
Props to Shaun for riding at such a level no one can touch him in the U-jump. In case you live under a rock here’s his run.
I leave it with you the viewers of should a 100 even be given in a contest regardless of rider or what is being thrown or does it have merit to toss it out now and then?
Popularity: 1% [?]
97…sure, a 100? that’s just for marketing.
Yeah, shaun is one the greatest competitors in snowboarding, ever Yeah he threw down an epic run. That doesn’t mean a perfect score should be given. LIke you said, how do you progress from a perfect score? Does a better run not exist? How did the judges decide it was perfect? What does this mean for Utubes future? Can the pitch and walls and not be steepened? I’m afraid that the closed minded judges do not see the sport progressing much more than throwing doubles all the way down the pipe. I personally feel competitive snowboarding is highly over rated. Except the supernatural. Which is the direction the sport should move in. Have a choice in executing your run. It puts the soul back in the sport. I’d like to see the supernatural become the new xgames. Have the worlds longest tallest most insane half pipe that actually splits into multiple pipes and has giant hips, jumps and opportunities to plant 40 feet in the air. Having choice is just part of what makes snowboarding the coolest thing on the planet. Having one option and being a super freak gymnast in my mind, isn’t that cool.
In short, a perfect score should never be given. The sport will always progress and there is no such thing as perfect.
There’s always room for improvement – so I disagree that a 100 should ever be given. He dragged his hand at the end, but I guess with the judges throwing out high scores everywhere, there wasn’t much room to move in terms of giving him a higher score.
It was an incredible run, but not sure if I would have given it a 100, He appeared to have some hand drag on the last hit plus some wet cat out of that last spin. I also think it removes of the integrity out of judging in general. What happens the next time he throws that run and nails everything. Where do you go? I guess you could argue it just makes everyone try harder now, but to me it actually seems to be a bit bias on the side of the judges similar to a parent who thinks their kid is perfect. Anyway it was a good run and clearly better then I-Pod whom in my mind won up until that point.
Here’s how I see it. If Travis Pastrana couldn’t get a 100 for the basically flawless first double backflip that year, then the red rocket shouldn’t get it for this.
Dude had 4 xgames golds and two Olympic golds to back him up going in, how would you judge any other way? 5′ higher than early one else, plus what he’s throwing down, the only option you can drop is a benjimen.
I think if anything he should’ve gotten a 99.9 but definitely not a perfect 100. Where’s the room for improvement?!
Only way to look at this 100 was he had a perfect run for the day. Not all time or ever just on Sunday. This is why I only watch boardercross. One clear winner. Its awesome to see people progressing but we all know there is no style anymore. I much rather see a huge switch 5 then just someone spinning like a top.
Well I can’t really comment the judges decision to give 100, the run is simply amazing even thou I don’t really like Shaun White. But to say that this is the end of pipe competition is a little off. I think the bar has been set a little higher, if Shaun make another run same like this in X-Games 2013 he would score 96-98 or something so the score marks remains the same but the tricks are given less value.
I’m just lost as to how a hand drag- not perfect landing. Resulted in a perfect score. Looked like both hands aswell…. I was under the impression since I first started watching pipe comps hand drags is a point deducter. My question, are hand drags now to be over looked? should u be able to land every hit with a hand drag and it not take any points off? They set a bad precedent, when clearly an unperfect landing resulted in a perfect run. Shaun cupping his own balls in the after interview was funny too. No one wanted to say a damn thing about the hand drag.
I think a lot of it comes down to him still choosing to do a legitimate set after winning the event, rather than just do a victory lap. I gotta give him props for that (did it during the Olympics as well).
Now, should he have gotten a 100? Probably not. Several people already pointed out the hand drag. Still, I don’t think this will matter much besides a footnote in a snowboarding book.
That run was not flawless, that’s a given. It was a victory lap and he still gave her shit and threw out the trick everyone wanted to see. That’s why he got 100, because it was the best that day and he went beyond what he was required to do. He had already won without that run. It basically rewards a good show.
Scores at the x-games are valid for that year. Next year that same run, even if it’s done “perfectly” will not yield the 100 again.
There is no problem here.
Agree with nonstandard. The score of 100 does not translate to “perfect.” Just like a movie that is 5/5 stars, a game that is rated 10/10, or a performance that gets a 10… it is always possible for someone to do it better. It is the nature of converting a subjective feeling about a performance into a number that gives criticism to what the judge scored. Apparently those judges felt that Shaun’s performance on that run was awesome compared to what they had seen previously, and gave him high marks. One of the judges was asked about the 100 score later that night, and he said something to the affect of that those scores are given RELATIVE to the performances THAT DAY, and do not correlate to anything else. I’m sure they also felt safe giving him that score since he was the last run of the day, and he didn’t just lie down when in the lead like so many others do. Kudos to him for putting on a show.
So relax, just because Shaun threw down a fantastic run (when he didn’t have to) and was awarded a 100, Superpipe is not dead. There are still new things to accomplish, and great things to look forward to. There will be more 99′s and 100′s given for those that slay the competition “that day.”
And to those that say he was playing up his ankle injury: how do YOU know? Maybe he was, maybe he wasn’t. Maybe like so many other athletes, he got psyched up and the adrenaline helped put it out of his mind. Maybe it wasn’t as bad as he originally thought. Maybe he got a lidocaine injection to deal with the pain so he could perform. Who knows and who cares? My only question, was why he wouldn’t let his face mask come down during the interview afterwards and seemed very concerned about keeping it there when it kept slipping down. Kind of odd when someone is talking to you on camera.
2 words, fuck him
@ blitzer that’s all well and fine, but do you think a pat on the back warrants the first ever 100 score? maybe if that threshold had been broken already it would be appropriate, but that run wasn’t 6 points of an improvement over his first IMO.
[...] in years to come. How do you progress from that? Where does the sport go now? One blogger on Angry Snowboarder has a similar standpoint, saying “I’m afraid that the closed minded judges do not see the [...]